Posting Order:shunoshi(1): September 13, 10:45pmKielaran(1): September 14, 11:00amshunoshi(2): September 14, 2:00pmTheJackster(1): September 14, 3:00pmKhrymsyn(1): September 14, 10:02pmshunoshi(3): September 14, 10:14pmTheJackster(2): September 14, 10:24pmKielaran(2): September 15, 11:00amshunoshi(4): September 15, 3:32pmKhrymsyn(2): September 15, 10:08pmKhyrmsyn(3): September 16, 6:42amNationalKato(1): September 16, 10:18amshunoshi(5): September 16, 10:30amKielaran(3): September 16, 3:00pmKhrymsyn(4): September 17, 1:22amNationalKato(2): September 17, 8:06amTheJackster(3): September 17, 10:00amKhrymsyn(5): September 18, 11:36amNationalKato(3): September 19, 6:13pm

Alright! Here's the thread we can do all of our planning for the zombie collab. I'd like to keep posting here for this purpose only. Please be aware that this thread will contain story spoilers, so if you're not an author and want to read the actual story without ruining it, leave this thread be. ;)

There are a few things we need to answer as a group before we get started with the actual writing. If you don't want to have input on this part of things, then don't worry; I have a brain full of ideas to be used. If you do have some input on how the overall arc will work, this is the place to voice your mind.

Tasks to Complete:

1) A Story Title - I've put zero thought into this so far. I'm up for suggestions.

2) Story Location - We have two routes we can take here. We can use real world maps and locations or we can make a fictional town. I vote for the former, personally. If we use a real world location, all the legwork is done for us. A little internet research combined with Google Maps and we should have no issues. I'll stick with my homer vote for Forest Lake, MN.

3) Infection Timeline - After we have a location nailed down we have to determine where our "ground zero" will be. I'm thinking that on Z-Day the virus will be present in roughly 1 in 5000 people (this means 1-2 people in my example of Forest Lake would start with the virus). This will cause a the virus to spread out from nearly every city in the world simultaneously. Within two weeks the most of the world will be in utter chaos and anarchy. We will only really be concerned with the area our story takes place. We just need to determine where it starts and how quickly it will spread. We also need to determine any major world events (military quarantines, use of nuclear weaponry, riots, etc.).

4) When - I still like the idea of the story to start on Z-Day and progress from there. If anyone wants to do this differently, please post with your ideas.

5) Posting Guidelines - On the original thread I posted my idea for how the story should progress. This ties in very closely with both the timeline and when the story is starting in that timeline. I think everyone can write their first chapter about their character on Z-Day. It will likely cover their daily routine and they most likely won't even deal with zombies in that chapter. The chapter titles should have the character's name followed by when the chapter takes place (ex. Bethany, 8:30am, Z-Day). After everyone posts their first chapter, we can all come back to this thread to discuss 2nd chapters. We can do any necessary collaborating and determine "when" each author's chapter is going to be. They should then be posted in chronological order. Not everyone will necessarily have as many chapters as everyone else. You get to determine the flow of your individual storyline. If characters end up in the same location, please collaborate with one another on how you'd like to proceed with writing (ex. one author handles one day with both characters while the other author handles the next or both authors write about the same events from different points of view, etc.). Always come back here to discuss when your next chapter is going to take place so we can keep things running in order. If anyone has ideas on a different approach to the timeline, posting, etc., please share. :)

I think this covers the bases on what needs to be handled before we begin the actual writing. If you can think of anything else we need to figure out, please share. Also, start thinking of your character and post initial, basic writeups here, so we all get an idea of who's going to be in this story (I still have to come up with one myself, hehehe).

For the title, I've got no ideas either. Location, I'll just go with yours since I didn't really put much thought into it, and you have. As for 'When', I was actually thinking that one of us write a small "Prologue" chapter, maybe one or two days pre-Z-day.

1) Title : No idea. I say call it "Om nom nom" for now ;-) Joking aside, I was wondering, is there going to be an "over-arch" that goes along with this? The title might be better defined if the "endgame" so to speak of the book is defined. I know each of our individual's goals will be survival, but what about overall? We begin separately on Z-Day, but where do we end? (i.e. does everyone die? Does everyone meet up trying to escape?)

2) Story Location : Wherever it is, it'll be! =)

3) Infection Timeline : I was thinking about your scenario, and I'm struggling with it. Only from the stand point of... if we're talking disease/infection, there's always a specific ground zero, and it sounds like you want to start this everywhere at the same time. Perhaps I'm not creative enough, but I'm struggling to figure out how that would even be possible. Even widespread issues such as AIDS started somewhere specific before spreading elsewhere. Unless perhaps it's a side effect of a war or something? Of course with all the business-air travel there is, its' still possible for it to spread very quickly (i.e. maybe not all cities the same day, but OUR closest city is Z-Day, and it starts showing in other majors Z+1, Z+2, Z+3 ?)

4) I'm cool with that. I think it would be pretty feasable too that some of our characters don't even know anything's wrong until Z+1, Z+2 or Z+3.

5) Posting Guidelines : Just wondering, what if someone doesn't have a first day first chapter? You were talking about everyone writing their first chapter before each 2nd, but I was wondering what if someone wanted to start (or end) their individual story arch sooner/later? Should we maybe gather what our characters are and our individual story archs together before writing the chapters to see where we may have "overlap" for interaction perhaps? i.e. Character/Chapter outlines?

1) Agreed. I have a hard time figuring out a title until an ending is determined. Guess we'll have to discuss that more in length.

2) I figure most people won't really care where the story takes place. So, that's one vote for Forest Lake, MN and two "no votes" tallied.

3) Yeah, you're right on this point. The only reason I wanted multiple outbreak points is to split up the US government/military. If a very localized disease outbreak happens and the military is quick, there is a decent chance the threat could be stopped cold. The city gets quarantined and carpet bombed. Done deal. Obviously, we could write it so that the government ignores the situation to the point that containment isn't as feasible. If we do this, at some point the military will have a very strong presence (whether that is good or bad is yet to be seen). This will change the overall story dynamic, but that's fine (we haven't really developed an overall dynamic yet anyway). Groups of military units can make things interesting though. There could easily be rogue units that travel around Road Warrior style, similar to the group in 28 Days Later. I'd like to hear others' thoughts on this as well.

4/5) I'd like everyone to have at least one chapter in before the zombie conflicts begin. This allows the characters to be introduced as normal people living their lives, not as zombie slayers/survivalists. As TheJackster suggested, perhaps a couple authors could even do multiple chapters before Z-Day to build characters and setup plotlines for later. If we really want to plan it out heavily, everyone could do an general outline for their character. This would obviously postpone the actual writing by quite a bit, but could save us from continuity pitfalls. I want to hear everyone's opinion on this though. Writing an entire outline wasn't on the plate to begin with and it isn't something to take lightly. Otherwise, I figured we'd just "wing it" and deal with issues as they pop up.

This does bring up another big discussion point. How is the story going to end? There is the one obvious route of everyone dying. The difficulty here lies in the fact that the whole story will be written in the first person. It's pretty difficult to write about your own death. There are some ways around this. One author could finish a chapter with their character under siege, with things not going well. Three chapters later, a different character witnesses them being feasted upon. Another option would be the final chapter describing the nuclear warhead about to strike and leave it at that.

Another route completely is the idea of leaving it open ended. Maybe some characters dies, but perhaps some of them finally make it to a stronghold of some sort. A barricaded estate or small town where a large group of survivors are starting a new life.

The third option I can think of right off the top of my head is that the humans win. The zombie threat is nearly eradicated and the surviving characters get to try and rebuild their lives.

I personally like either option one or two. I think "humans winning the undead war" would take much longer than one book could cover. Now, if we were to go with option two, a sequel could be written with an option three ending...or maybe option one. ;)

If anyone else has any endgame scenarios, speak up. In the meanwhile, everyone should be thinking of a character and try to get a basic writeup on them in the next week or so. It doesn't have to be extravagant, just cover the basics.

2) As for location, was the plan for the whole thing to be in that one city or would we be on our own trying to get there for our own reasons? I was planning on doing something along the lines of far away from there and headed toward 'home.'

3) I like the idea of spreading out from a central location. If you made it a flight hub city, like Minneapolis, :) then we could be close to the target location, but a large chunk of the world would be quickly infected before anyone could act on it.

4) Starting on Z-Day is fine with me. Thing would be able to start slow and hit the fan quick.

As for an outline, would be be doing one for each chapter and then writing it and repeating as necessary?

For the ending, I'd go with option two. Having some of the characters die and some of them live could be more dramatic than everyone dying, depending on how we write it.

One more point though, just to clear it up. If we're going with the Max Brooks zombies, will there be any characters that could be immune to the virus? Also, will we be changing anything (such as time taken to die and reanimate, or whether only brain damage kills them) about the zombies themselves?

1) Om Nom Nom is a great title, but I don't see it fitting the mood. ;) We'll wait on the title until we have more of the main story arc created.

2) If you want to start farther out, feel free. I was actually considering doing something similar myself. Not sure yet though.

3) It's looking like the consensus so far is to have the outbreak originate from a single source, so we'll plan on that for now unless someone comes up with a good argument for a different plan.

4) I think a Pre-Z-Day start with at least everyone having their first chapter in by Z-Day will work best. I'm still open to other suggestions, of course.

As for the outline, I'm talking about a full-story outline. If we just wing it chapter by chapter, I do think it's a good idea to come here to let everyone know what day your upcoming chapter is going to happen on (so it can be added chronologically) and also give a synopsis of what is going to happen. That way if any characters are nearby, everything can stay contiguous.

Yeah, I'm thinking having the open ended finish would be best. Like I said, maybe the survivors find a stronghold or get together to hold up in one location that for the time being appears safe.

As for Max Brooks Zombies, I only made reference to him because I want the zombies to be virus based, not supernatural. I do want brain damage to be the only way to actually kill a zombie. I'm completely open for how long it takes to go from infection to death to turning. This will have a drastic effect on how quickly the virus spreads. We could go extreme with bites killing humans within hours and turning within 10 minutes from death. We could go lax with bites taking 1-2 days to kill the victim with turning taking hours after death.

I don't think we'll need to get into anything more specific than this. I wouldn't mind a quick turn scenario. This would lend more credence to a single infection point spreading beyond control before the military can get involved.

We still need to hear from Crittias and NationalKato. I've sent PMs to both Harlot and xxR0ckStarzxx, but have received no response as of yet. We'll move forward with planning and consider them out until I see some response. I'm fine with six authors if they don't officially join.

@shunoshi In terms of viral based zombies, perhaps a bite may not be the only method of infection? I'd say any "fluid" activity would likely spread the disease, so we can actually have a slightly longer timeframe from infection to turning (like 12 hours maybe?), so that no one really knows right away what the problem is, until it's already all over the place.

Scenario to explain what I mean - Business man in Minneapolis, after a hell of a party night perhaps gets his rocks off with a hooker around 1AM, doesn't bag it like a good boy should, gets on the plane in the morning 6AM, and by the time he gets home, he's feeling pretty darn sick (11AM), and by 1 he passes. 15 minutes later, he wakes up and attacks.Could even have the virus spread by other "innocuous" methods, such as a nurse accidentially pricking herself with a needle after drawing blood, or things similar.

Lots of potential for a fast spread, as the victim may not even know they are infected right away (except for the obvious Zombie Bite), and gives a nice timeframe in today's fast moving world for things to spread quickly.

Yep, I agree totally. I didn't even think about the other forms of spreading disease, such as your unsafe sex example. 12 hours from infection to death is a decent amount of time. This allows the host to relocate before passing as well, increasing the chances of further spreading.

I do like the idea of a quick turn from death to undeath. I'd say 15-30 minutes. This gives enough time for coroners to pick up bodies and move them. Morgues will be a bad, bad place. ;)

1) A Story Title - We should wait until we have a better idea of some of the rough story drafts. I've always felt it best to see what story you're telling before naming it. That way we can see if a common thread is there and title the story off of that?

2) Story Location - I'm cool with Forest Lake, MN. I've never been, but I heard it has forests and lakes and stuff. ;) Ultimately, it'll have enough diverse environments (as opposed to, say, Tucson AZ) that we can tell some good stories in differing locales.

3) Infection Timeline - I can work with any infection timeline; I'm more interested in deciding how it starts, how it spreads, and what the effects are at each stage of infection. Let's get down to brass tacks here and start understanding the disease so we can work with it.

As for how it spreads, I'm open to whatever the consensus feels is best. Although I love my pandemic stories with a little social commentary, so maybe Monsanto genetically engineered corn seeds go bad in a batch or two and the high fructose corn syrup causes the disease. :D

Short of Crittias dropping a mind bomb on us. We have a few things settled.

1) Story Title - On hold until we know more about the story.

2) Story Location - Forest Lake, MN - I lived in this town for about half my life. I know just about everything there is to know about it. As Kato mentioned it does indeed have both forests and lakes. Do a quick Google Maps search and you'll see its layout. Unfortunately it looks like the current close up photos were taken in the winter as they're all gray and white. Feel free to ask any questions. I think the easiest place to start the infection will be at the Allina Medical Clinic.

3) Timeline This still needs to be fleshed out. Any and all suggestions welcomed. My initial addition to it will be Z-Day -1, 9:30pm, patient arrives via ambulance to Allina Medical with a 104 degree fever. While administering an IV, a nurse has trouble finding a vein. On her third attempt, she accidentally jabs herself with the needle. Her shift ends at 11pm and she goes home. The patient passes away at roughly 1:30am on Z-Day and turns just before 2:00am. The nurse who returned to her home in Uptown Minneapolis near the corner of Franklin and Lyndale wakes up at 10:15am on Z-Day as a zombie. The population in Uptown is very dense and the virus will spread like wildfire here.

4) When We'll be starting the story just before Z-Day for those who would like a setup chapter or two (looking at you TheJackster). I'd like everyone to plan on having at least one chapter by Z-Day to start their stories.

5) Posting Guidelines No one has opposed my idea for chronological chapter posting, so I'll take that as a unanimous approval. We'll have all chapter titles follow this template: Name, Time, Day in relation to Z-Day. I think the general infection/major event timeline will be enough of an outline for us to go by.

Everyone can plan their characters from here. Please post up a synopsis when you have it. Try to keep your character's starting point north of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Your distance from Forest Lake is purely up to you. There are many small towns north of Forest Lake on I-35 and along Hwy 95 out of North Branch. If you choose to be south of Forest Lake, be aware that the majority of the cities in the Twin Cities range from 15,000 - 45,000 people, not including Minneapolis and St. Paul themselves. The farther south you start the higher the population gets. Things will get hairy quickly if you are near Minneapolis.

Also, please post your ideas for major events for the timeline. We need to flesh it out before we begin writing. Also post your ideas for how the virus spreads and to where/when.

I've created a Custom Google Map to help keep everyone on the same page. If you PM me your email addresses, I can add you as a collaborator. I've begun by putting up blue markers for important locations to the story. So far I've marked both Subject Zero's and Subject One's locations on Z-Day. Everyone can mark your character's starting position once I have you all added as collaborators (everyone can pick their own unique marker to keep it easy. This can be used to track their position in the world as the story progresses.

I really like the idea of a variable time frame from infection to death. It would let us each start out way differently. Also, I like the idea of being a carrier before you die...adding infection spreading and appearing before it can be contained and lets the infection break out in different areas as it suits our initial stories.

HFCS causes the zombie apocolypse. That is hilarious. That would give us our 1 in 'n' people scenario again instead of having a single localized outbreak. I'd be fine with that, as I was before. It would allow for multiple outbreaks, except the areas of the country that don't eat Super Frosted Crunchy Bits Cereal. Perhaps it's a local cereal company that only distributes to MN...? :)

If we want to go that route, we can. Otherwise, I listed a suggestion for the localized scenario in my previous post. It doesn't have clever social commentary, but it gets the job done. In reality, my scenario can be used in conjunction with the bad HFCS, as Subject Zero could be the poor sap that ate that cereal.

Actually, that would work great. We could start the story at Z-Day -7 or so. People who eat the cereal get sick and are admitted to hospitals around the Twin Cities. It only affects adults though, so the number of reported illnesses is fairly low. Reports of "cereal recall" are on the airwaves. Then BAM, Z-Day. :)

That's not a bad idea either. Say anywhere from 5-30 hours from infection to death. It basically comes down to immune system then. Then 15-30 minutes until turning. Then we'll have some cases where people are dropping like flies and others where someone could travel cross country before turning.

Yeah, I figured it's a classic scenario. Much of what is on the timeline won't be seen in the story, however, unless characters are directly involved. I'm starting to think I may toss my character at ground zero though as an overnight nurse at the Allina Clinic. She could even be assisting with Subject Zero when the nurse pokes herself. I'd be nice to have someone there right at the start of things. I'll take the reigns on the initial zombie festivities, so consider my first chapter as Z-Day -1, although it will continue into Z-Day itself. :)

We could also have the infection affect people differently. Perhaps sometimes they pass peacefully, other times people will hemorrhage blood, or perhaps go a bit berserk, start acting incoherent, get violently ill, go into convulsions, etc. Then doctors won't be able to pinpoint symptoms and be generally confused...before being consumed by zombies. ;)

More Timeline Additions:

Z-Day in Forest Lake - Police are called to Allina Medical clinic in the early AM. The clinic itself is closed for the day, cordoned off by police tape. No one is allowed in. The couple officers that are investigating and skeleton crew left end up overwhelmed. Zombies proceed to wipeout the entirety of the clinic's in-patients. Overnight the zombie population begins wandering Forest Lake attacking random homes, and overnight businesses. 911 and police lines begin ringing off the hook. The Forest Lake police force doesn't have the manpower to cover all the calls, so neighboring Washington County sheriffs and state troopers are beginning to make house calls.

Z-Day in Minneapolis - I don't know how much detail we want to get into with the infection here. Unless someone wants to brave ground zero in Uptown, I don't think specifics will be necessary. The only thing we'll need is general infestation radius. I'll leave it at that until we know for sure where everyone is going to start. I did make mention that starting in Minneapolis itself could be difficult, but if someone were to be leaving to go to the cabin for the weekend that morning, it could be doable. This would not only give them a reason to possibly attempt returning to Minneapolis (damn near guaranteed suicide), but allow them to possibly witness an attack while driving on Z-Day. They'd beat out the panic traffic, so they'd likely be safe at their cabin and oblivious to the carnage that would await them on their return home. If their cabin was on Rush Lake, as an example, they would actually pass Forest Lake on the way. Just an idea. ;)

Well, that's all for now. Another uber post in the books. I'm going to work on my nurse character writeup. :D

As always, please add anything you'd like for the timeline. If you don't like my suggestions or find a flaw with them, speak up! Otherwise, I'm going to keep kicking out content as I think of it.

About the characters, I guess I should ask a question about your American schooling system. I'm planning on writing a pretty young delinquent student, maybe 13 or 14. If someone was born in 1996, what grade does that put them in?

If you're 13 going on 14 during the school year that will most likely put you in Middle School/Junior High School in 8th Grade. If you're 13, but turn 14 in the summer, you'll likely be in 7th grade, although it wouldn't be unheard of to be in 8th grade (I was when I was 13).

Hey Shunoshi, what do you think about Arden Hills as a location? I can take things offline if you want to discuss further as to why, or if you want me to just layout what I was thinking, I can just expound upon the concept here. I will say that I'm considering wiritng a character I'm not all that comfortable with writing.

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